Sunday Gospel Warmup

To See as God Sees

Nov. 6, Luke 20:27-38

God’s ways are not our ways. In today’s Gospel, Jesus is confronted by the Sadducees testing his viewpoint on heaven. They ask who will be husband to the seven-time widow in heaven. Jesus tells them heaven doesn’t work in the way they have in mind. In this, He is also challenging their authority on religious practice in this life. A childless widow in that culture was not only a tragedy, but she was believed to have done something seriously wrong against God to deserve such a fate. In their eyes, she would never have made it to heaven in the first place. Jesus’ response says God does not operate in the way humans have decided it to be, and what you should be doing is praying for wisdom and understanding to see the world more like God does. That message is as much relevant for us today as it was then.